Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

in July 2005, the RCE network has continued to expand, and 77 regionsaround the world were registered as RCEs as of September 2010.Japan’s message to the worldAchievements of the first half of the decadeDuring the first five years of the DESD, the Government of Japanlaid the groundwork for partnership between the public and privatesectors. In addition to creating an organization of governmentministries and agencies to promote ESD goals, it drafted a domesticaction plan, organized round-table discussions to serve as a venuefor dialogue among the organizations concerned, and implementedvarious measures.A major achievement of this period was the affirmation of ESD’sstatus as an important government policy in such plans as the BasicPromotional Plan for Education and the Twenty-first CenturyEnvironment Nation Strategy. Moreover, the creation of a sustainablesociety was included as a topic to be addressed in all subjectsin MEXT’s revised courses of study, and lessons reflecting the principlesof ESD became part of compulsory education.A practical model for implementing ESD concepts at the regionallevel and in institutions of higher education has been developed, andthe Associated School Project Network, RCEs and other networksfor implementing ESD programmes are growing. Regional networksto promote ESD established as a result of private-sector initiativeshave also been spreading.Challenges aheadThough progress has been achieved in disseminating ESD, continuedefforts must be made to reach as many people as possible. Inundertaking this task, a straightforward explanation of what ESDentails should be provided, while taking into account its connectionwith ongoing educational activities being undertaken locally.Closer partnerships among government ministries and agenciesand other groups are vital for promoting ESD, and efforts must bemade to strengthen the system for cooperation and to implementpolicies toward this end. Other remaining tasks include raising thestatus of ESD in government policies and taking a more comprehensiveapproach that incorporates ESD principles in teaching individualtopics on the environment and international understanding.Fostering closer alliancesThe government will promote ESD in primary and secondaryschools and introduce it into teacher training courses and trainingprogrammes for teachers when they renew their teaching licences. Itwill also take steps to promote joint community-school ESD initiatives,including school and community support headquarters andstakeholder conferences.To promote ESD in higher education, collaboration amonguniversities and various sectors will be fostered through the expansionof the environmental graduate school network, the formationof a consortium among industry, government, academia and civilsociety, and other measures.At the community level, the government will support partnershipsamong and initiatives by individuals and organizations in thecommunity, such as forums to promote ESD. It will also encouragedevelopment and promotion of ESD programmes at public halls,civic centres, children’s centres, libraries, museums and other socialeducation facilities. Steps will be taken to train and deploy coordinatorsto promote ESD in the community.At the global level, there will be efforts to further expandUNESCO’s Associated School Project Network, RCEs andthe Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Educationand Research Network (ProSPER.Net) initiative.Towards the global promotion of ESDIt is important to create a scheme to facilitate the participationof and partnership among various individualsand organizations at the national and local levels and totrain ESD coordinators in various regions so that ESDcan be promoted by coalitions of diverse individualsand organizations.The promotion of ESD principles that are rooted inthe community and that can bring about change will bedependent on the creation of a system that encouragesthe use of local resources, including natural, cultural,historical and industrial resources. It will also requirethe development of participatory, experiential andproblem-solving models, and ways to bring togetherpeople from various walks of life.One important means of disseminating ESD is bypooling the knowledge of the countries and organizationsconcerned, which can be achieved by listing andcategorizing outstanding ESD programmes, compiling asummary of good practices and making this informationeasily accessible.In view of the above, and of discussions that haveunfolded at UNESCO, the summary of the proceedingsof the International Forum on ESD Dialogue, held inTokyo in 2008, and the Bonn Declaration, adopted atthe UNESCO World Conference on ESD held in Bonn,Germany in 2009, included the following three recommendations,agreed by participating countries:• To develop model projects that can be undertakenjointly by multiple stakeholders• To establish a framework for cooperation among allstakeholders, including private companies• To increase the number and quality of UNESCOAssociated Schools.Reaching these goals will require cooperation withUNESCO and efforts by member countries to identifymodel projects and undertake programmes to disseminateESD. Japan is about to start a registration schemeof ESD activities, named ‘+ESD Project’, as one methodfor achieving this.To produce concrete results, we must set out prioritygoals and an action plan for achieving them, with periodicreviews to confirm that the measures in the planare being implemented. It is also necessary to formulatemeaningful indicators for measuring progress.Japan will be hosting the End-of-Decade Conferenceof the DESD in 2014. In the second half of the Decade,individual countries must step up their efforts to incorporatethe principles, values and practices of sustainabledevelopment into all facets of schooling and learning.Japan will continue to collaborate and cooperate withUNESCO and member countries to contribute to theglobal promotion of ESD.[ 65 ]